The Commons QV

Challenging the norms of an increasingly competitive market, Foolscap defined The Commons' Melbourne flagship in the city's QV precinct through breaking the traditional office grid, fostering collaboration, and empowering the entrepreneurial spirit.

Foolscap designed The Commons QV, the brand’s flagship Melbourne coworking site. The design elevates workplace design for contemporary creative entrepreneurs and reinforces The Commons’ position as a leader in premium coworking. The project builds a member experience centred on connection, comfort, productivity, and importantly, fun.

Foolscap's concept employed a familiar workplace grid to conjure familiarity but softened the boundaries and broke the framework at key points to create more opportunities for spontaneous social interaction. The design disrupts this order with curved, fluid social zones; introducing rhythm, variation, and deliberate moments of pause.

The Commons QV coworking space in Mebourne, designed by Foolscap

An early sketch of disrupting the traditional grid

Conceptual inspiration for breaking the grid. Generative artwork by Refik Anadol.

The repeated grid motif appears across the materials palette, shifting degrees of privacy and ambience. Strategic placement of workstations and breakout areas pulls natural light deeper into the plan. Greenery, layered sightlines, and visual rhythms enhance wellbeing, orientation, and overall flow. Reflective surfaces, geometric forms, and kinetic installations add moments of engagement, while a muted, nature-inspired palette softens the traditionally hard edges of commercial interiors.

Dynamic and comfortable spaces include a conversation-pit-inspired amphitheatre, a multi-use reception and welcome zone, and a hospitality-style kitchen supporting social connection and community events. Additional amenities, including a digital driving range, library, record lounge, and low-lit sensory room, encourage relaxation, incidental networking, and shifts in pace across the day.

The Commons QV sets a new benchmark for coworking design in Melbourne’s CBD, delivering an intuitive, high-performance environment supporting creative enterprise, community culture, and contemporary workplace expectations. The project positions The Commons for continued growth across Australia’s competitive coworking landscape.

"What’s evident is Foolscap’s nuanced understanding of what makes a co-working space work. There’s a high-tech golf simulator for client entertainment or a break from desk work. Nearby, a cocoon-like sensory room, wrapped floor to ceiling in a plush, sound-deadening carpet, is designed for moments of repose."